In 1990, the agriculture minister fed his daughter a beef burger in front of the tv cameras to prove British beef was safe. But five years later, the government was forced to admit a link between BSE and a new, human disease.

As Mark Mardell follows the twists and turns of Britain's 45 year relationship with the European Union, he hears about the swift reaction from the E U: British beef was banned, and a public health crisis was moulded into the familiar shape of a battle with Brussels.

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